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I am a son of the American South and a student of her often troubled history. A native Alabaman, I now live in Atlanta and only recently became aware of an instance where Coca-Cola used corporate power to do social good in the Civil Rights Era. In 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and the city of Atlanta was preparing a formal dinner befitting of this great honor. Invitations went out to the city’s elites but almost no one responded. Worried, Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen expressed his concerns to Robert Woodruff, the former president of the soft drink giant and still one of the most powerful people in town.

For those of you who know the Case Foundation, we’re bullish on the impact investing movement and the power of private capital for public good. While still a relatively small market, impact investments are surging, with some seeing a trillion-dollar market potential by 2020. Against that context, we do a lot of thinking about what is standing in the way of tipping significantly more interested investors to activated investors.

Let’s take a break from talking about investments. Yeah, yeah. This is a journal about Sustainable Investing, but what is it you’re really after? What’s the reason you’re investing in the first place? Have you thought about where you’d like to end up? How will you know that you accomplished what you’ve set out to accomplish if you haven’t defined your goal? Investments are an important tool but they become more powerful when you view them as a part of your larger financial life strategy.